Sustain pedal through the end of a recording

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Adriaran
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2021 6:46 pm

Sustain pedal through the end of a recording

Post by Adriaran » Wed Mar 31, 2021 7:12 pm

Currently (Ableton 11) while recording loops, if you hold the sustain pedal past the end of a loop, the sustain disappears completely on playback. Currently, this requires you to release it right before the end of your loop if you want sustain to work at all on playback. (This is different than the issue of pressing the sustain pedal before the recording starts, which is less of an issue for me).

Yes, you can edit the sustain automation or note lengths after the fact, but this cannot be done during a live performance, which is where Ableton is supposed to shine.

As a keyboard-heavy user, this is nearly a deal-breaking problem for me. I can't reliably time my release of the sustain pedal to the exact end of a loop without either releasing it too soon and cutting off the sustain early, or releasing it too late and completely breaking the sustain on the loop's playback. There have been complaints about this issue for over a decade according to my extensive searching, without any real solution that I can find that would work during live performance.

If anyone already knows of a fix that works for live performance, please let me know. Otherwise, this definitely needs some attention, as it is likely a big turnoff to keyboard users.

Samick
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2024 11:42 am

Re: Sustain pedal through the end of a recording

Post by Samick » Sun Mar 17, 2024 11:44 am

Could you solve this? I have the same concern!

chapelier fou
Posts: 6003
Joined: Mon May 15, 2006 12:15 pm

Re: Sustain pedal through the end of a recording

Post by chapelier fou » Mon Mar 18, 2024 8:56 am

It’s a common issue, that’s because of how MIDI works unfortunately. I can’t think of a solution that would work on every situation.
That said, I just had an idea involving m4l :
What if a M4L device would automatically switch the sustain off when a clip loops or reaches its end ? Would it work for you ?
MacBook Pro 13" Retina i7 2.8 GHz OS 10.13, L10.0.1, M4L.
MacStudio M1Max 32Go OS 12.3.1

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